They’ve used massive spending cuts to attract support. Earlier this year, they raised the nation’s borrowing limit with a stipulation that Senate Democrats would, for the first time in years, pass a budget or risk their paychecks.

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Gang of 8 push for supermajority

Portman: Use debt limit as leverage

Now, momentum is building to tie a rewrite of the Tax Code to hiking the debt cap, which will need to be raised by the fall because the limit will technically be hit this month. Top lawmakers and aides on the House Ways and Means Committee have quietly begun mulling over and crafting mechanisms that would attempt to “commit Washington” to tax reform over the next five months, several sources involved with the planning say.

One framework that has gained significant traction — and has been ricocheting around K Street and Capitol Hill — would directly wed increases in the debt ceiling to progress in tax reform.

The idea is in its infancy, according to sources involved in planning, but here’s how it would work: Legislation would authorize something like a three-month bump in the debt limit while simultaneously giving the same amount of time for the House to act on its tax-reform plan. When the House passes something, the debt limit would bet increased again, and when the Senate moves its own tax-reform product, Congress would authorize another bump in the debt ceiling. A larger increase in the borrowing limit could come if President Barack Obama signs the legislation, according to a source familiar with the thinking of the Ways and Means Committee. The plan would most likely be accompanied by a road map that lays out certain guidelines for Tax Code rewrite.

The mechanism, which is described as one of a multitude of options that have been discussed with House Republican leadership, is occupying much of the mind share among Ways and Means aides and lawmakers as Congress wrestles with just how it will lift the nation’s borrowing cap this fall.

If House Republicans choose this route, and their ploy works, they would solve a litany of problems. The debt ceiling would be raised, and tax reform would be put front and center in a town that is now focused on immigration and gun control.

House Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.) has long been seeking a way to prioritize tax reform on Washington’s crowded plate this Congress. Tying it to must-pass legislation would go a long way toward creating the deadline-induced urgency that Congress needs to get legislation passed.